Port Clean-Air Plan Nearly Set

A road map to cleaner air in and around the Port of Los Angeles could be crafted today as a high-powered panel of experts wrestles with how to roll back air pollution to 2001 levels at the country’s largest seaport.

Officials overseeing the effort said Wednesday evening that they are increasingly optimistic that the panel will move ahead today to approve a preliminary plan to slash pollution from ships, trains, trucks and yard equipment over the next 20 years.

The push to create the first-in-the-nation clean-air plan for a seaport comes amid mounting public concern that the fast-growing Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex has become the region’s worst air polluter.

Diesel fumes and other contaminants created by moving cargo through the ports are fouling the air, not only in the Harbor area, but along freeways and railroad lines east to the warehouses of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Measures being weighed include stringent regulations and voluntary steps, but one little-noticed proposal, known as “03” -- on Page 104 of the draft plan -- would impose a growth cap if pollution grew above certain levels.

“That’s the ultimate backstop,” said port environmental expert Christopher Patton. He is helping lead the task force appointed last summer by Mayor James K. Hahn with orders to determine how to reduce pollution to 2001 levels.

But the panelists learned Wednesday that even the barrage of more than 60 cutting-edge measures in their plan would take five years or longer to roll back pollution to 2001 levels.

For the first time, they also saw charts showing how two major types of contaminants -- particulate matter and nitrogen oxides -- would continue to mount until 2010 or later, despite the ambitious curbs, some of which would require new laws or still-to-be-perfected technology.

Hahn’s effort to create a clean-air plan gained momentum when three major agencies that regulate Southern California air quality -- the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the state Air Resources Board and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency -- dispatched some of their top technical staff to work with port experts and consultants on a working group advising the larger task force.

They have devised the preliminary plan now being reviewed by task force members at a marathon two-day session at the Sheraton in San Pedro. Those members include representatives of the railroad and shipping industry, community and environmental groups, and unions.

Several members said they were encouraged by the convivial atmosphere of the Wednesday meeting. “We got consensus on most issues,” said Port Commissioner Thomas Warren, co-chairman of the group.

Gail Ruderman Feuer, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said she was “very encouraged. I’m optimistic that this task force will deliver to the mayor a strong plan that will achieve no net increase.”

But a controversial measure to rein in pollution from railroad locomotives will be discussed this morning, and a representative from Union Pacific railroad expressed concerns Wednesday that a railroad representative had not been included in the working group.

Some members voiced disappointment that the adjacent Port of Long Beach, the nation’s second-largest port, did not accept an invitation from rival Los Angeles to join the task force deliberations that began last fall.

Richard Steinke, executive director of the Port of Long Beach, confirmed Wednesday that his port received an invitation, but he said the port’s harbor commissioners chose to develop their own “green port” plan adopted in January.

Los Angeles task force members said that is not enough.

“There needs to be a level playing field. It’s unfair to do it in Los Angeles and not in Long Beach,” Feuer said.

Hahn is seeking to fulfill his 2001 vow to hold the line on emissions at the city-owned port.